Play with Lego for Strategic Results

At XPDays Benelux I was fortunate to accidentally attended Agile Community Vision with StrategicPlay by Olaf Lewitz and Yves Hanoulle. If you are curious how you can use Lego to achieve strategic results, read on.

Ideal Team Member

One of the exercises was for each participant to build an identical turtle from a kit using instructions. We were told that the turtle represented an ideal member of a team and ask to add one part that represented what we thought was important. In my case, I picked a flower (see photo on right). For me the flower stands for individualism that is needed to have a strong team. I am sad I did not video record my explanation or take notes since I can’t re-access the profound insight I had when created my model.

You can also see all the turtles that the group created in the photo below. Even though some us picked the same Lego piece to add, the location and narration of the meanings were quite different. So, in this case you really need to hear the debrief to understand the meaning.

Agile Community Vision

The next exercise was for each of us to build our vision of the Agile Community using a large collection of Lego without talking. After building, we took turns debriefing. You can see the different models that people created below. Mine is the one in the foreground with a tall antenna and bridges to other communities. As I went through the exercise, I found that I was learning things about myself. This can be a very revealing exercise.

Check out a very short video where I explain my model.

Shared Agile Community Vision

In the next exercise we built a shared vision that incorporated ideas from the individually created models. As we did this we clarified and enriched our metaphors. It was a very interesting social/team exercise to work through the ideas.

There was only one rule to guide us: everyone had to feel comfortable with the model. If there was a part that did not work for them, we were to remove it.

Here is a short video where we took turns explaining parts of the model:

Michael K Sahota guides and teaches leaders how to create high-performance organizations. He is the creator of a proven system for leading change through a practical playbook. His model for Consciously Approaching Agile guides the creation of a cultural and leadership context where Agile creates lasting organizational results. Michael has taught over 1000 leaders worldwide through his highly acclaimed “Agile” Culture & Leadership Training.